Keeping Windows when installing Gentoo (solved, thanks)

Washington Irving

Hi,
I'm really really sorry for the n00b question, and I'm sure its been asked before, but I couldn't find it anywhere else.

I have an Acer TravelMate 4060 laptop (I know they aren't much good, but when its free...) with 2 30gb hard drives.
Windows is installed on the first (C:/) and a few docs are on there
There are a few files on the second (D:/)

I need to keep windows, as the school intranet only supports it, but I want to install Gentoo.

Could I install Gentoo on the second (slave) hard drive, and if so, how?

If not, then how would I install Gentoo so I keep Windows and my documents?

I apologise again for the n00b question, I'm just a bit bewildered by Linux, I haven't used it before, but it seems that I will probably get more benefits from working out how to install Gentoo then sticking with Windows which is just too darn slow for the programs that I use (they are power hungry, and my 1.7ghz Centrino just can't quite keep up)

thanks a lot
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gustafson · Guru Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 430

If you have two hard drives then it should be really easy. Move all your files to the MS hard disk, format the second, then follow the gentoo handbook for the installation, choosing /dev/hdb as your location to install.

The only complexity comes when installing grub, however, this is well documented in other places.

chunderbunny · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:42 pm Post subject:

Easy peasy. The hardest part is correctly partitioning your system, or since you have 2 drives, correctly identifying which drive has Windows installed on it (so you don't accidentally erase it

)

In the Gentoo Handbook, once you get to section 4 (Preparing the disks) you will need to remember that your second hard drive will most likely be /dev/hdb rather than /dev/hda (read the block device subsection of section 4 to make sense of this). With that in mind, just replace all instances of /dev/hda with /dev/hdb in the instructions and you should be fine until you get to section 10 (Configuring the bootloader). In the grub.conf file you will also want to replace hd0 (which grub sees as the first hard drive) with hd1 (you guessed it, grub sees this as the second hard drive). Be sure to include the grub entry which is used to boot windows.

The next most important part is that YOU MUST INSTALL GRUB INTO HDA! In code listing 6 in the bootloader section keep the line

Washington Irving · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject:

Thanks, I will take that into consideration, how long would it take me to install Gentoo, as I have little free time and I can't do it this weekend and would like to do it in a single session, apart from that, thanks for the help, and I will get Gentoo.

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vasudevank · n00b Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 58

well it took me 4 hours to install the base system, 3 hours to emerge x, and 22 hours to emerge kde. But I have a Pentium 4 at 2.53 GHz, so it does take awhile, but things often go wrong, which makes it even longer For me it took 2 weeks to get the system fully installed and functional
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1.Computers are like air conditioners, open windows and the break
2.How do you fix all Windows bugs at once?
1. mke2fs /dev/sda1
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3.Bugs come in through open Windows

Zoomba · n00b Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

Sorry to add on to this, but it's the same sort of issue, and I didn't want to start another thread for something that has already been talked about.

I've gone through the Gentoo handbook and followed the GRUB installation section closely, even looked at the GRUB manual, and I'm still having the same problem.

The problem is that when I select "Gentoo" on the bootloader screen, the next thing that comes up is:

Washington Irving · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject:

OK, sorry for one more question, I hope this is the last, which version do I need to download:

alpha, amd64, hppa, ppc (32 bit), sparc64 or x86

My laptop is an Acer TravelMate 4060, with an Intel Centrino 1.7 ghz prccessor, then I should be set to download and install, thanks for all the help
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There are 2 types of people in this world, those who hate Microsoft, and those who work for it...

Zoomba · n00b Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

for Intel and AMD, it's x86, and you can customize it more later

markkuk · Guru Joined: 29 Nov 2002 Posts: 446